Shocking. Unbelievable.  Implausible. Stunning.

Just some of the words that kept Kai rooted to the spot as he stared at his adoptive brother. People were bustling around him, brushing against his shoulder, getting annoyed that he was standing in the way, but Kai didn’t notice any of this.

He felt an indescribable amount of emotion, he felt like doing a million things at once. Giving Sehun a brotherly embrace, yelling at him for not finding him, poking him to make sure he was human and not a ghost.

But he did none of this, he just stared and Sehun had not noticed.

Somewhere, underneath all the shock and numbness, Kai felt like laughing because Sehun’s obliviousness to stares had obviously not changed. Then again, Sehun was probably not expecting his brother who he hadn’t seen for four years to be staring at him in awe.

The volunteer Lay had given direction to had relayed Lay’s message to Sehun and Sehun was now looking at the stage and waiting for the performers to get on it to take the picture.

Kai bent down and picked the book he dropped up, not moving his eyes from Sehun. He was scared that even if he blinked he might lose sight of him.

Is that really him? Kai began wondering.

But there was no mistaking it, Kai would have been able to recognize him if he had grown a hunch back, let his hair go uncut, and gained fifty pounds.

His eyes became rather watery as he took one step towards Sehun. He was unsure how Sehun would react if he just tapped him on the shoulder as if they had just seen each other yesterday.

Sehun then saw that the kids were gathering on the stage and he stood in front of it, directing the kids where to go with the other volunteers.

“Move in a little,” Kai heard Sehun say. His stomach did a blackflip when he heard Sehun’s voice, it had gotten much deeper.

Once the kids were in position, Sehun took a couple of pictures and resumed his position by the stage.

Kai observed Lay going up to Sehun, telling him something and then taking the camera. Sehun walked to the bake sale side and was immediately handing out goods and accepting money.

He then remembered that he had to see Lay too, he was standing near the control table which was in view of the bake sale area. So Kai, switching views from Sehun to Lay at the speed of light, inched his way to Lay.

He tapped him on the shoulder when he got there, stealing a glance at Sehun who was giving an elderly woman a cupcake.

“Hm?” Lay turned around and smiled at Kai.

“I-I need a slip for this book,” Kai held the book up, averting his eyes to the bake sale again. “And some extra.”

“Oh, here,” Lay fished some slips out of his pocket and handed them to Kai.

“Thanks,” Kai said

“How’s it going over there?” Lay asked conversationally, clearly not noticing that Kai’s mind was somewhere far away.

“Good,” Kai said absentmindedly, not even remembering what the question was. He pointed a shaky finger at Sehun. “Who is that?”

Lay looked to where Kai’s finger was pointing. “The tall one? His name is Sehun,” Lay told him as Kai put his arm down. “He’s an assistant instructor.”

Kai couldn’t say anything so he nodded.

Lay sighed, “Poor kid, he came from an orphanage.”

Kai looked at Lay, “Orphanage? How do you know?” He highly doubted that Sehun had broadcasted the fact.

“The person who recommended Sehun to work here knew him, apparently he came to the classes here with the orphanage,” Lay said.

“Oh.”

Lay looked at Kai, “Why? Do you know him?”

Kai wasn’t sure how he’d respond to that so he nodded.

“Oh, well I’ll see you later,” Lay smiled and walked in the direction of the games, leaving Kai to continue gape at Sehun.

“Kai?” A finger tapped his shoulder. Kai looked to his side and saw Minhee curiously looking at him. “What’s taking so long? There’s a woman who wants the book that’s missing the slip.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Kai muttered, tearing his eyes away from Sehun who was having a short conversation with whoever was working with him.

“What’re you looking at?” Minhee asked, looking in the direction of the bake sale. “Do you know someone there?”

Kai didn’t answer that question and said, “Let’s go back.”

Minhee shrugged and they walked back to the other half of the hall. Kai kept glancing back to make sure Sehun hadn’t disappeared, wanting to walk backwards. 

Kai was very glad that he was at the back of the hall near the doors and Sehun was handling the cash register at the front of the hall on the other side so Kai could keep an eye on him.

He was quite unsure of how to approach Sehun but decided he would when the event was over. For now he was just making sure Sehun didn’t randomly vanish and kept pinching himself to make sure this wasn’t a dream.

“Kai, are you okay?” Minhee asked, concerned. “You look so nervous and keep looking at the bake sale. Do you want something?  Should I get you something to eat? You look kind of pale.”

Kai shook his head as he looked away from Sehun, who had been counting change. Minhee noticed Kai had been glancing over for the past hour and wasn’t giving his full attention to the register he was handling.

That was how the next hour went too, and Minhee’s confusion grew.

The crowd was thinning so Kai had to strain himself less to see Sehun over all the people.

The goods from the bake sale were running out so Sehun was mainly just sitting there on his phone. Somehow, Kai knew Sehun was forcing himself to go on his phone so he wouldn’t have to talk to his co-worker.

Four years, but Kai could figure these things out just by looking.

People were continuing to leave, hands full of sweets, books, and prizes. Kai saw Sehun talking to Lay, Sehun nodded and then stood up and headed out of the hall.

Quicker than light Kai said, “Minhee, I’ll be right back, watch over for a bit.”

“Um okay,” Minhee nodded. She thought that Kai’s behaviour was very odd but passed it off as a bad day.

Kai quickly followed Sehun out the doors, Sehun was turning a corner when Kai left the hall so he sped up to not lose sight of him.

Sehun, quite oblivious for the past three hours that someone had been “stalking” him, continued walking. 

Kai had no idea where they were, Sehun then walked into a room and Kai, who was a couple of meters away, stopped beside the doorway, unseen.

What to do now? He imagined many different scenarios, each as stupid as the next.

“Yo, Sehun, where ya been?”

“Sehun-ah, it’s me.”

“Are you perhaps my brother?”

Kai heard Sehun coming back and quickly hid himself in the bathroom across the hall. Once he was sure Sehun was walking away, he continued to follow him.

That was all Kai did for the rest of the event, affirming that this wasn’t some sort of dream and that Sehun was actually there. He really had no idea how to approach him, and didn’t want to startle Sehun. But he definitely wasn’t just going to let Sehun merrily go wherever he lived.

“You two have worked hard,” Hana said as the last couple of people left and only the volunteers remained. “I’ll have the other volunteers help with clean up, you two can go.”

Kai was only half listening and barely noticed Minhee say thank you and bye to Hana.

“Oppa’s outside,” Minhee said once Hana walked away. “Let’s go.”

Kai snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Minhee, “Oh. Listen Minhee, thanks for the ride but I’m going to go home by bus. I have to do something.”

Minhee looked at him peculiarly but then nodded, “Okay. I hope you’re more normal tomorrow at school, see you.”

Kai nodded and Minhee grabbed her things from under the table and left. Kai heaved a sigh and continued to watch Sehun who was clearing away some things.

Lay then walked over and said something to him, to which Sehun nodded. After putting some containers into a box, Sehun put his jacket on, nodded at Lay and exited through the same double doors that Minhee had left through.

Kai immediately grabbed his own jacket and pulled it over himself as he speed walked behind Sehun.

Sehun was on the side walk, heading towards a park. The community centre was on a long, winding road that led to a playground and beyond that a neighbourhood.

It was when they were right between the park and community centre when Kai stood directly behind Sehun and said, “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Mind telling me what’s been going on?”

Sehun froze with his back turned and Kai knew Sehun had a puzzled expression on his face.

Abruptly, he turned around and his eyes widened as the gears in his mind began turning and the realization dawned on him.

There was quite a bit of sentiment in his eyes as he stuttered, “K-Kai?”

Kai gave him the smallest of smiles and nodded.

“Hyung,” Kai asked Woobin the day after Sehun had been taken to the orphanage.

“When are we going to see Sehun again? Those men aren’t taking him forever, right?”

Kai had been pestering a very distressed Woobin for the past 24 hours, but Woobin never gave a proper reply.

“Sit down, Kai,” Woobin gestured towards the empty sofa seat beside him. Kai did as told.

“I don’t know when we’ll see Sehun again, I don’t know which orphanage he’s been taken to,” Woobin said slowly.

“Why not? You should find out, hyung,” Kai said immediately. “We have to go get Sehun back.”

“I’m sorry, Kai.”

“What do you mean you’re sorry?!” Kai yelled, standing up, anger rising up in him. All the feelings he had been keeping bottled up for the past day were coming out. “If you were sorry, you would go get him, if you were sorry you wouldn’t have let those people take Sehun!”

“There’s nothing I can do!” Woobin said, frustrated. “They’re people from the government, Kai! They said there was something wrong with Sehun’s adoption, that he doesn’t belong here.”

“He certainly doesn’t belong there!” Kai said angrily. “He belongs with us!”
Woobin was not being entirely truthful, and Kai knew that, which was what made him even angrier.

“Look, Kai, one day you will understand, you will know, okay?” Woobin said, standing up as well. “You will see Sehun again, alright? Just wait.”

“I don’t want to wait!” Kai bellowed. “I want us to go find him!”

But Woobin didn’t do anything to help Kai’s wishes, he was just visibly upset which added to the fury Kai felt. If Woobin was so sad why wasn’t he doing anything to go get Sehun?

“Why, hyung?”

“He has to stay at whatever orphanage they put him in,” Woobin said heavily, in a voice that made it clear that the conversation was over. “We can’t do anything.”

They moved shortly after that, much to Kai’s protests and complaints.

“What if Sehun gets out? He has to find us, hyung!” Kai had said.

“He won’t get out until he’s 18, we have to move from that place.”

Kai detested the way Woobin was handling things, he was giving up and Kai would never forgive him for that.

Eventually, Kai stopped asking Woobin who became depressed at any mention of Sehun, and did his own research which led to no avail.

Mina had been right behind Kai, though she didn’t understand everything due to young age, but she kept asking about Sehun as well.

“Oppa,” she would say to Woobin.  “Where’s Sehun oppa? When is he coming back?”

After a couple of days, she became teary and cried that she wanted to see Sehun.

“Sehun oppa promised to play soccer with us,” she said with tear filled eyes.

“Where is he? I want Sehun oppa to come back.”

But she never got to see Sehun, she never got to say a proper goodbye and before anyone knew it, Mina had joined their parents.
 

The two brothers stared at each other for a long time. Sehun was walking closer to Kai, scrutinizing the one in front of him. Kai could see the recognition on Sehun’s face as he documented Kai’s tall, lean figure and bold facial features.

“Kai,” Sehun said with a pale face, stopping in front of him. He could hardly believe it, was Kim Jongin really in front of him?

“Sehun,” Kai said, staring right back. A couple more seconds passed before they shared a tight embrace.

They pulled back and once again were staring at each other.

“How…?” Sehun started.

“I was at the fundraising event right now too,” Kai said, hardly believing what was happening. “I saw you. I recognized you right away.”

“Why didn’t you come then?” Sehun asked. “Why’d you wait to creep me when it’s almost dark?”

Kai almost laughed, “I’ve been creeping you the entire day. I didn’t want to just show up in front of you while you were having oh-so much fun managing the bake sale.”

“How come I didn’t notice you then?!” Sehun asked, more to himself than to Kai.

“Because you’re Sehun?” Kai guessed.

Sehun scratched his head and then said in a voice that suggested they had spoken last week, “So…. how’ve you been?”

“My answer is probably the same as yours.”

“Horrible?” Sehun guessed.

Kai nodded.

After getting over the initial shock and awkwardness, Kai and Sehun maintained a normal heartbeat and is was like four years had not created any gap in their relationship. It was as if they were simply picking up where they had left off.

“How are Hyung and Mina?” Sehun asked as they walked around the park.

Kai’s throat went dry and he knew he would regret his next answer but said it anyway, “F-Fine.”

“That’s good,” Sehun nodded with a smile and Kai’s stomach churned with guilt.

“What happened?” Kai asked. “The day you left, the orphanage, what happened?”

“Long story,” Sehun said tiredly.

“We have time.”

“Let’s go to my place,” Sehun said, heading towards the crosswalk at the end of the park. “It’s close.”

“Sehun-ah,” Kai said, causing Sehun to stop walking and look at him. Kai cocked his head in the opposite direction where the bus stop was, “Home is that way.”

*hides behind sofa* Guys, I really don't know T_T